Block Interval Makes the Expo Rounds

The Hard Work is Paying Off

If the Life of Lon project could talk, it would say that it has seen some things. It would tell you how it started in August of 2014 as an artistic sidescroller and entered development as such. It would sound heartbroken that so much development had to ultimately be scrapped. But its rebirth as a VR game would shout with excitement that so much has been learned and created.

The Block Interval team has embarked upon a new paradigm in VR storytelling. We've innovated on seated locomotion to drastically reduce or, as we've learned in our testing at SVVR, altogether eliminate motion sickness in a large percentage of people. We've also created a character that is incredibly compelling in VR. We're ready to show the world how a story can be told in this new medium.

Where did this chapter begin? Bristol, UK at the VR World Congress.

VR World Congress - Bristol UK

For all of us except Darryl, an 8 hour flight was how we started our trip to London. We picked up a rental car and had to learn how to drive on the 'wrong' side of the road. That brought some incredibly harrowing moments, but we made it to Bristol in one piece.

Immediately we started facing issues getting our booth setup, but we're a team accustomed to dealing with problems. We banded together and solved them one by one until we had our setup in perfect working order- clean, organized, ready to go. The next day, the crowds came.

Have a look at our video overview of the event:

BBC Breakfast paid a visit to some of the booths including ours.

During the entire day, we were swarmed with people wanting to try Life of Lon. Many of them had heard about it or seen the website. Lines formed and we set out to talk to everyone, set up demos and keep everyone happy despite the long wait. Halfway through the day, we ran out of art books to give out.

Crowd reaction to the demo was very positive and we made a number of new connections in the VR industry. We also learned a lot about what goes into putting on a good demo. We put that new information to use a few weeks later when a larger chunk of the team went to Silicon Valley to attend SVVR.

Silicon Valley VR Expo - San Jose, California

Our lead developer Dave Nelson (holding the Rift) and interaction developer Josh Corvinus (right) setting up the table for demos. There was a strong sense of optimism about what was to come.

Suzie Sabin (of our biz dev team) joined us on day 3 to build connections with potential investors.

Our demo station was never empty- even during setup times.

Josh manned the demo stations for much of the expo and always greeted our players with a smile!

On day 2, a group of people gathered together for the annual quick pitches. Creative director and co-founder Daniel Allen gave a quick pitch for Life of Lon that you can watch below.

We spoke with a number of journalists throughout the expo.

The lines got longer and longer as the expo went on and more of the attendees began to hear about our demo. At the end of day 3, we had to nearly stop a demo in progress because the expo floor was to be cleared- just like what happened at VRWC. People couldn't get enough of Life of Lon.

So what's next?

We're all back to our respective homes now digging through piles of business cards and working on fostering the relationships we've formed. We're very happy with how both VRWC and SVVR went. We'd love to keep you informed when we reach the next milestone- so perhaps you'd like to follow us on twitter, or like us on facebook? If you enjoyed this post and you want to see more content like it, sound off in the comments below!